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Nicole Kidman

22" x 15", watercolour, 2001

I painted a number of famous actors* to round out my illustration portfolio, and all of them are based on magazine photo reference. The reason Nicole may look a little off here is more due to her makeup being quite stylized in that photo shoot –rather than me being off with the likeness...which happens.

I tried to keep her skin as pale as possible, only adding light colour in the shadows to help describe the forms, concentrating all my painterly flourishes in her voluminous red hair.



*and others throughout the years: Madchen Amick & James Spader; Tori Amos; Gillian Anderson & David Duchovny; Sean Connery; Alyson Hannigan; Alfred Hitchcock; Michael Jordan; Shirley Manson; Bettie Page; Michelle Pfeiffer (my first portrait of any kind); Albert Pujols; Meg Ryan; Tiger Woods...and a few others that didn't turn out so well, so you won't be seeing 'em.

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